VA: Father of 5 says life on sex offender registry has forced him and his family into homelessness

Many people may be unconcerned with what someone on the registry goes through, but William Walker said he hopes by sharing details of his arrest and the collateral damage it’s causing his kids, someone will rent him a place to live. Full Article

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The registry is worse than jail. He didn’t even go to jail. When i was on probation, i was REQUIRED to go to high school at 25 to get my diploma. Yes, required. If i did not, i faced arrest by probation. When i was on probation, i was considered ZERO threat to anyone. Once on the registry though, everything changed. Now i’m considered a monster and 100% likely to do what monsters do. The registry does NOTHING for society except hurt families and makes society “feel” better. I guess in the eyes of the public, it’s okay to kill babies while still in the womb and so what if entire families are forced on the streets, including children as long as they “feel” better.

To general society, go shame on you. You are a virus that gets better at evil as the days go by and totally immune to any goodness. I guess you feel good about children being on the street and in the cold. You must be okay with this, because you’d fix this problem if you actually cared about children. In your eyes this is collateral damage you are okay with. What ever happened to “We want to know where sex offenders are at all times.” Well, if you wanted to know where they are you’d let them have homes.

Sometimes, i hate Americans more than anyone else. Most other countries don’t do this to their people.

“Sometimes, i hate Americans more than anyone else. Most other countries don’t do this to their people.”
I despise the United States, and in particular New York, in how they f***** up my life.
I planned a long time ago to live like the immigrants do. Just stay for 6 months and save as much money to establish myself in another country, which is what I do for the other 6 months.

F the 175ers every chance u get. If everyone refused to register imagine how many prisons they would have to build. Not going to happen, of course, so F em and stay out of jail. That goes double for the stalkers.

The motto of the $EX Offender Registry Supporters/Harassers is “If it kills a hundred children a year, it’s worth it.”

I really have been wondering over the years exactly how many dead children it would take for the Harassers to decide that having Registries just for their jollies and entertainment is not worth it. They don’t care about children much.

I admire this man’s courage for coming forward publicly. This is what it is going to take. He and his wife speak up that they are not bad people, just a working family, and he made a mistake many years ago. How many times have we heard this story? And how absurd that fair housing laws don’t apply to sex offenders. What blatant double standard discrimination. At the end he says he and his family sleep in their car, in the cold he leaves the car running with the heat on. That is a good way for the entire family to die from carbon monoxide poisoning. Hopefully the car is a newer model. Is that what it will take to allow people on the registry to live inside? Must they find the entire family dead in their car to wake people up?

This is the exact reason why I have so much hatred for this country and Americans in general, and I’m someone who served this country. Too many times in our nation’s history, groups of people have been harassed and mistreated, with the masses shrugging their shoulders and saying so what. They get angry when you compare this nonsense to nazi Germany and the Jews, but it’s easily comparable, to include adding in the civil rights movement.

To make a class of people who cant rent in many areas, take a cruise with their family, must have “special” markings on their passports, and to be denied entry to schools and daycares to pick up their own children really makes one think are sex offenders even citizens anymore.

No other class of people in this country is treated in such a way once off probation or parole in nearly ALL states. People are treated with scorn and treated as dangerous for charges/crimes that are decades old, having to obey said new laws for something decades old. America would be up in arms if the government made a new speeding ticket law and EVERYONE who has ever had a ticket must report to the local police and pay $50, yet are ok with this very thing being applied to sex offenders………..

@Gralphr:
“They get angry when you compare this nonsense to nazi Germany and the Jews, but it’s easily comparable, to include adding in the civil rights movement.”
—–
You’re quite right on both counts. If one were to strip away who was being oppressed and merely presented the facts of oppression to someone, they would almost certainly equate it to the Nazis and/or civil rights. Ask anyone what they think of specially marked passports, mandatory “papers” (on-your-person-at-all-times POTR IDs in AL, for instance), exclusion from public spaces, denial of housing, denial of and exclusion from occupations, having to report to LE both at home and when traveling, etc. I suspect they will recoil in horror that any country would do such a thing, and it would be semi-fun to ask what country they think has ever done or is currently doing this. I’m betting Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union will be top answers. They almost certainly won’t answer or believe it happens in the “land of the free.” But once you tell them it’s what POTRs endure, more likely than not they’ll be quite fine with it.

“America would be up in arms if the government made a new speeding ticket law and EVERYONE who has ever had a ticket must report to the local police and pay $50, yet are ok with this very thing being applied to sex offenders………..”

I’ve been saying for years the best way to describe how absurd the registry and associated restrictions are is to apply the same logic to other crimes. Very similar to your point above.

For example, anyone convicted for reckless driving wouldn’t be allowed to own, operate, or be within 1000 feet of any motor vehicle, street, parking lot, or any other place where motor vehicles might congregate. Anyone convicted of arson wouldn’t be allowed to purchase or have access to any flammable materials or be within 1000 feet of any building, vehicle, or forestry that could be “reasonably” expected to catch fire. Anyone convicted of burglary wouldn’t be allowed within 1000 feet of any commercial or residential building.

Let’s go back to visit the wisdom of SCOTUS and see what Smith says about this:
*****
“If the disability or restraint is minor and indirect, its effects are unlikely to be punitive.”
—and—
“The Act, by contrast, imposes the more minor condition of registration.”
*****
See? What’s the problem? The Act’s disabilities and restraints are minor and indirect. No harm, no foul.

Along those lines, can one not make the argument that some restriction of movement is minor when being provided all of life’s necessities (food, shelter, medical care, etc) for free? In other words – prison?

Or at least, checking in with one’s probation / parole office every so often. In other words – punishment? Who decides what his minor?

@Joe:
“Along those lines, can one not make the argument that some restriction of movement is minor when being provided all of life’s necessities (food, shelter, medical care, etc) for free? In other words – prison?”
—–
Yes, though it’s packaged not as prison but as civil commitment…

Hey SCOTUS justices, maybe one of you can rent your basement, attic, or toolshed to this family. Then you all can go shopping at the Price Club together using his membership. It’ll be fun!
SCOTUS justices are EVIL NAZIS! I hope they enjoy hell!

I don’t know why I haven’t experienced things as you guys did.
Sure, I got disowned by many friends.
I was never homeless, Always had food to eat.
I finish college while on RSO and got my BS degree.
Everyone knew but they didn’t make my life harder except to not be my friends.
I now have a full-time job in internet marketing.

I just a support group for the disability and with that support I made friends with a guy who is a supervisor at a warehouse and he got me a job working with him.

After the company shut down I got unemployment insurance There was a congressman at that time who didn’t want RSO to get any unemployment Insurance. Lucky for me he died before he could get that law passed.
Then I found a job holding sign on the sidewalk, then became a car salesperson and now a Internet Marketer.

Just look for little jobs that no one cares about and keep pushing yourself to higher goals.

Those people who are not your “friends” any longer did you a great favor. You do not want those kinds of “people” around you or your family. Being able to identify such “people” is one good, useful feature of the Registries.

People who support the Registries don’t care if families like this die. Someone asked if that is what it would take to end the Registries. Of course not. This kind of stuff has been occurring non-stop. No one cares. People must come to the realization that it is not acceptable to be forced to live in a car and wage war against anyone that thinks it is.

The more I think about it, the more I think “tiering” is not good. It gives a signal that the Registries are being “fixed” and that they are legitimate. That signal should never be given. And it’s also just a bunch of us giving up on a bunch of other people and saying, “I can’t be listed but it’s fine if you are.” I would bet you anything that the vast majority of people who are not forced to Register any longer will stop fighting for the people remaining. I expect to stop Registering but the Registries have put me into a permanent war with the un-Americans who think they are okay. I’m not going to stop affecting them.

The “tiering” is very much like the amendment that they just passed in Florida where they will start allowing just some convicted people to vote again. But they’ll keep excluding the most hated people for no other reason than because people hate them. No one should support that. Same with the “tiered” Registries.

I agree that tiering isn’t the solution. As I think of it this morning after reading Will Allen’s reply, tiering is only further refinement of the registry process and making it worse instead of better. The registrant’s tiered badge shines as bright as a neon arrow light to the non-thinking/overreacting public regardless of their level and associated duration of being classified in a tier. However, until the registry is turned off, it’s illumination must be blunted as best as possible along the way.

Enacting the sex offender registry in the first place was like buying a car to mow the lawn. It never was and never could be an effective means to prevent sex crime, as accurately predicted by its earliest opponents.

Tiering is like changing the tires. Looks pretty, but still won’t get the grass cut. Beyond that, tiers are only based on the crimes of indictment/arrest rather than circumstances before or after the crime. The registrant is rarely (if ever) interviewed or consulted unless he appeals. Most states (Georgia, anyway) make the appeal process near-impossible for the lay-person, and most of those that need to appeal inaccurate levels (nearly all of them, I would think) cannot afford lawyers. Not to mention the registry Nazis in the general public couldn’t care less about how the registrant is leveled – simply being a registrant is enough.

Many states now don’t disclose their level 1s. Aren’t level 1 offenses by definition minor, unlikely to be repeated, and not a threat to public safety? Well, if the registry is about PUBLIC NOTIFICATION, then what the hell is the point of registering THEM? Answer: Money. Too many budgets and grants are based on the number of registrants a state/county has, all for a registration and monitoring system that has had virtually NO IMPACT on sex crime prevention.

Tiering is just a useless alteration to a useless system, and accepting one is giving in to the false premise that the registry is necessary for public safety.

I had to register last spring. My landlord started doing everything he could to get ux out. We decided to move but cant find a place thats legal and will take us. Im married with 2 children and a grandson.

Finally the landlord filled a eviction claiming to many complaints abd we were evicted. We had 1 month to move.

MY KIDS are living with friends my wife is in a shelter and im in my van.

Interesting article on Carroll County, MD. I hope someone tells the lady that she is a greater statistical threat to her child than any contractor who comes into her house to do work.

Makes me also wonder if a registrant applies to the college, are they going to admit them to the college then deny them access to the campus based upon their registrant status due to a state law that applies to a registrant sans assessment? The article said they could not attend the campus and had to go somewhere else to get their education. As a MD taxpayer, are they then being denied state provided educational services through taxes they are willing to pay $$ for classes and attend? Certainly, this would not apply to online (distance learning) classes now would it? You cannot force someone to go distance learning from a college if their degree of choice is only taught in person and the law to restrict them should not be applied to them, can you?

Hmmm, someone in MD needs to be looking into this and asking the governor about this.

I think your first paragraph is right. However, I don’t think that most decent people treat Registered People as lepers. I think other people do and many, many of them are not good people and they cannot be fixed. So I wouldn’t worry about them too much. They deserve to be ignored. I don’t think those people (and many others) care much about hardships of other people.

I think you can appeal to people who have sense mostly by just being a normal, good person. I’ve said it before but if you live a completely normal, good life and are successful, I have found that people respond very well to that. Then if/when someone does find out that I am Registered, I think they really do think the Registries are nonsense. And of course I will go completely public with what I think about it at any time.

Regarding going public though – one thing that I will not do is discuss anything that I did in the past. I will say that I did things that I should not have done (I will not minimize it by calling it a “mistake” or whatever). I will say that I am sorry for what I did (but actually not if it involved anyone who supports the Registries, ironically, they deserve problems). I deserved to be punished and was. But I won’t discuss it any further than that. I have flatly told people before that it is 100% none of their business. In the same way that I don’t know any of their past business because big government hasn’t delivered a dossier on them to me. So I will not discuss “my story” or give a single inch that the Registries are legitimate in any way.

I think it is important to not legitimize the Registries by telling people that you are listed. I treat the Registries as just stupidity that smart people shouldn’t care about, which I believe. I have had people get very angry about it and tell me that I should have told them. I just tell them that I thought all the helpless people who need Registries actually use them so why would I need to do it? And that it is a nonsensical, big government game that I don’t play.

In summary – many, many, many people who live in the U.S. simply are not decent people (take a look at recent past history if you have any doubts). A pile of them are just demonstrably stupid and lazy. I wouldn’t worry about trying to change their idiotic impressions. But what is the most effective way to change the impressions of sensible people? I think the most effective ways are:

1. Be normal.

2. Live well.

3. Show that it doesn’t make any sense to anyone with a brain that there should not be 100+ other Registries and their absence proves what the $EX Offender Registries are really about. Show the money trail.

4. Show that the Registries are worthless. Recidivism rates don’t matter much except that the Registries increase them.

5. Show that the Registries are worse than just worthless.

6. Show that the Registries have no business in a free, moral country.

Yes, you are absolutely right…. All other groups in the past that have sought to change laws and reshape public perception have indeed taken to the streets in unified public protest. Yes also, living a good and normal life is what we should all aspire to do, but just living right and posting to each other on sites like this is not going to educate the public. Throwing a ton of cases, petitions and university studies at the courts may “someday” result in a minor change here and there, but as long as the public (meaning the politicians, the judges, the media and everyone else) continues to believe the misrepresented “facts” about sex offenders then nothing much will really change. The people need to know what is going on in this country, and the only way to get their attention is to go public……ALL OF US.
The LGBTQ community began to speak out in the streets at a time when they where not only the “lepers” of the day, but in many states what they represented was illegal, and yet they came out and demanded change knowing that they faced hatred and bitter discrimination. We all sit here at our screens and write about how unfair the laws are and how nobody wants us to be a part of society ever again….we all know that, but as long as we sit here at our screens, safe from public view in our protective little shells then the laws will continue to be unfair, and the people will continue to not want us to be a part of society ever again.
This is not about what we did in the past. Many of us paid for our crimes years, even decades ago…our debts to society have long since been paid in full, and yet we continue to be punished for reasons that are completely false with laws and “acts” that no lawmaker would dare put upon ANYONE else. Yes, we have to go public with the truth about the registry and why it does no good, we have to go public with the truth about our so-called risk to the community, and we MUST go public with the true stories of how we are treated, and how so many lives and so many families have been harmed, ruined and even destroyed for no reason.
Any group that has ever fought against discrimination has gone public with not just their demands, but also the reasons why their treatment was unjust. Many of the groups before us faced fear, hate and the threat of reprisal, but they did not let any of that stand in the way of what they knew to be the right thing to do; to educate the people so change could come, and be real. We can no longer “wait” for the laws to someday change in our favor. The only ones that can truly educate the public are us……all of us together.
Who among us has the strength, the will and the leadership ability to bring us together and help us organize. Who can convince us to stop hiding away for fear of losing what little we have left to us by laws that could change at any time taking even that away…. Whoever you are, if you step up and say “stand with me”, then I will……..

I am still reading a lot of hate out there……I have been on this registry for years, I can’t be with my wife because she is from another country, and because of the AWA she can no longer be here. I have few friends (but good ones) and I can never volunteer anywhere because I must “disclose” about myself. I am fortunate that I am not homeless and I feel badly for the family we all read about here, but spewing hatred about Jusices going to hell, or hoping many other people get on the registry only shows us to be as heartless as “them”. We all know (minus the trolls) that the registry and the many laws concerning sex offenders are motivated by politicians, counter productive, hurtful and just plain wrong……but cursing others does none of us any good.
Good and true information is only half the battle . We cannot expect to change minds with just printed words, or podcasts or videos. We have to show ourselves to be the good and honest people we need society to see, and believe in. The top reply said it all…. just be good normal people, after all, isn’t that who really are……….

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